peek

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Everything posted by peek

  1. peek
    www.illinoisskydivingcenter.com/
  2. peek
    That worked fairly well and we had quite a few users that wore them, but I realized that those ribbons are so small that even if a person wrote their user name really big on it, I could not read it at a glance! So I didn't really meet too many users that I didn't know already. But hey, I have another souvenir. (I have kept all of my Symposium name tags over the years.) For the next Symposium I am going to plan a meet-and-greet or something. We have 2 years to think about how to make it attract a bunch of users. Alcohol perhaps?
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    Not much time left. Get yours while you can. I'll be at the Exhibit Hall this evening and some of the Moderators and Sangiro have some with them too. Strangly enough, some people are not wanting to write their User Names on them. What could be better than finding out who that person is that you have better arguing with on dropzone.com?
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    Oh, don't worry dear. I'LL FIND YOU. Hee, Hee.
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    I'm leaving for the USPA BOD meeting and PIA Symposium this morning. Every time I go to the Symposium I realize that there are dropzone.com users all over the place, but since I don't know them, I never get a chance to meet them, which is what skydiving is all about, isn't it? So I contacted Sangiro and got permission to use the dropzone.com logo, and I had ribbons made that we can write our names on and stick on below the Symposium name badge (or other ribbons we might have such as Speaker, Sponsor, etc.) (I made the horizontal type because that is the type they have been using for several Symposiums. If they have changed it this time, we will have to figure out something.) I will have some, and I will give some to the Moderators that are there, so if you see any of us, just ask for one, starting about Sunday after registration opens. See you there. (Gary) peek
  6. peek
    It could, but I believe that it would still be very bulky compared to the electrical cutters used by the AAD manufacturers right now. The spring mechanism would need to be largish to make sure there is enough force, and assuming the spring mechanism would need to be inside the reserve container, a bulky and not so flexible mechanical cable would need to be used between them rather than a small and flexible wire cable. It makes me appreciate the Sentinel "pin-pusher". It was pretty good for its day.
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    I think perhaps it could be trusted to some degree. Would a DZO require AADs for a while and then change their mind and not require them? Does anyone know of a dropzone where this has happened? Although the exact conditions of requirement (license, currency, etc.) might change, a list of the dropzones that have ever required an AAD might be useful. But I agree, not completely trusted. At least people would know that they need to contact the dropzone to make sure if they have ever seen that dropzone on the list.
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    This question is for informational purposes only. I am not trying to sell anything here. I would just like some opinions on what this pilot emergency parachute is worth, so I can help out a former rigging customer. National 360, unknown harness/container options, with Phantom 24, both 14 years old, last repack April 01, excellent shape, stored well. Simple calculations on the 6 years left out of the 20 year life declared by National gives me $660 out of the $2200 purchase price. Any other guesses?
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    Wait a minute, Rob, are you suggesting that a rigger would make an assumption whether or not a reserve had been deployed and flown based on whether the canopy was given to them packed or unpacked at repack time? If so, what about an owner who wanted to air-out their canopy before giving it to the rigger?
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    Great advice of course from a very experienced DZO! Unfortunately, as the saying goes, common sense is sometimes not so common. Some people need to be hit over the head with some facts and figures. Very good and simple way of putting it.
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    I was thinking about that a bit myself. If there was an RSL on the side being held, it could conceivably get disconnected. But otherwise I can't think of any other problem. Anyone else?
  12. peek
    Are you talking about post #7 or #27? You didn't quote anything.
  13. peek
    Those are some very interesting perceptions. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Some are things that I had never thought about, and some are things that the sport is going to probably need to accept, or at least understand. There is a program on PBS (that I don't recall the name of) that is a guy with a small format wide angle camera on his left hand, doing all sorts of outdoor things while doing video and making overly obvious statements and commentary. His monolog and the camera shaking irritates the shit out of me enough that I skip right by the program while channel surfing, but somebody must like it.
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    When I posted "Not including airport access issues...", I was thinking of you, buddy. You are the expert. I think those 3 steps could be the Preamble to the "starting a DZ" Constitution couldn't they?
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    I found out today that USPA has discontinued selling the package that they had for people planning to start a DZ. It had a number of documents and other things including the joint FAA/USPA video about skydiving operations at airports. (I don't know what else it included.) Does anyone know of any other documents or packages available now? (Not including airport access issues, just resources for starting a DZ where the airport is available and generally welcoming to the DZ.) I was looking for some resources for a friend who is in the beginning stages of operating a DZ. It is interesting that there seems to no longer be any "official" or well known package available (that I know of) for such an involved and potentially difficult process. Would there be any interest in an article for dropzone.com? (It might require multiple sections for different countries, which might keep it from being a practical article.)
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    In my case it was because I am big and the normal rig I wore (as parachutes 2 and 3) was a big rig, so the cutaway (parachute 1) harness fit inside the big rig naturally. But other people who have used it had smaller rigs, and it was a bit more crowded. Still, it seemed like the best fit. Probably because the cutaway parachute harness has no container attached, and can be tightened in a way to keep that harness inside easily.
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    I too was thinking that you said "I feel like I need to a duck..." I have seen posts that indicated that Bill von was of that persuasion, so I thought you would have had that covered...
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    I'm glad you posted that. Many rigs are now considered "freefly friendly" and the like, and provide excellent protection against parts of your deployment system being exposed. Even so, I think we all need to instill in everyone a sufficient sense of fear and paranoia that their pilot chutes and bridles might be exposed and that they need to continually check them, at least until they get in the door. I just don't think that it is reasonable to accept that someone is going to be yanked off a plane once in a while due to something being premature. I think it can almost always be prevented.
  19. peek
    Switch that around a bit: Buy nearly any harness/container, cut off the main and reserve trays, leaving only the harness/3 rings and cutaway mechanisms. Wear this harness UNDER my normal gear, with the 3 rings and canopy connected outside of my normal harness. The 1st parachute would be deployed from a belly mounted (or held) d-bag via a standard pilot chute. Exit on my back, deploy PC, fly until bored, cutaway 1st parachute, deploy standard main. When you do that, you are wearing your normal rig, which should satisfy anyone with the legalities. The first (cutaway) canopy is connected to an extra harness which is not even needed to be legal. I made my intentional cutaway rig like this except the extra harness was from old "conventional" gear that had a harness with shot and a half releases and (used to have) separate main and reserve containers. Can be seen in operation here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i16HryVyRaI
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    Gary Peek was there. So was Peanut, Rhonda Lea Kirk, Winsor Naugler, Bill von Novak, DJan Stewart, Skratch Garrison, etc. (DJan and Skratch "met" on the internet.) I remember accessing rec.skydiving at work on a text-based terminal. I had a piece of paper taped to the wall where I noted some of the posters that I wanted to keep track of because they posted things that made sense and were positive about skydiving. I remember the day I added DJan.
  21. peek

    TI Q

    peek replied to swoopfly's topic in Tandem Skydiving

    I can't remember where anyone other than one of my tandem students has "glorified" me! If you know how to get the rest of the skydiving population to think I'm cool, by all means let me know.
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    RIP Rev Jim

    peek replied to airtwardo's topic in The Bonfire

    Sigh... Another friend from way back in the rec.skydiving days is gone. Jim was always a very friendly guy and was always concerned about skydiving as a sport. Not to mention the good times we had at the WFFC. I will miss him.
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    I just read that on Facebook too. Freddie was an energetic fun guy. Made a lot of skydivers happy by providing them with inverted biplane jumps. I bet there are a lot of those pictures on peoples' walls ... If anyone has their pictures available, we would love to see them.
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    I have had several people now tell me that they have sent me text messages and have not heard back from me, but my cell phone number is known only to a few people, so these messages were surely sent to one of my land lines. Aren't error messages generated for this? What if the person sent the same message to a bunch of cell phone numbers and one land line at the same time? Would they still see an error message? I tried sending a text message from my cell phone to my land line and it indeed sent back an error message.
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    There are no "pros" to having a very tight rig other than (maybe, and that is doubtful) looking "cool". None. (And I'm not talking about the difference between wearing your rig versus a student rig or some nonsense.)